Linux is art, not becomes it receives a prize, but because of the
aesthetics, in the collaboration, in the organism whose parts are
naked and self-evident even to those reasonably unfamiliar with
operating systems, in the ability to make and wear it like a skin
crossing the world where the Net continues to flow and stumble.
Linux in shell mode is a potential field that appears to follow
the thinking of the user; it doesn't appear (unless one wants it
to) like a carapace or graphic superstructure. It's film-theory '68
all over again, the parameters and articulation of the system vis-
ible, the artifice revealed, the imaginary laid out in palimpsest.
What's more, it's not only easy to configure (in the sense of
speech), but also to program (using shell scripts, 'dialog,' etc.);
if art is connected in any way with representation, one might say
that the interactive representation of linux is, if not art, at
least fashion, wearable, at problematic variance with capital (punk
for example), useful for intruders, the mouth and tongue for some
of the rest of us.

In other words, for some of us, linux _has_ changed the language.

Whether a prize for an artwork/works/networks should go to any soft-
ware at all (beyond art-specific software projects) is another ques-
tion.

Alan

Internet Text at http://www.anu.edu.au/english/internet_txt
Partial at http://lists.village.virginia.edu/~spoons/internet_txt.html
Trace Projects at http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/writers/sondheim/index.htm



#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net